Settling In

September 27, 2017

Kansas! The place we knew we might end up eventually, sometime in the distant future, if ever, which turned out to not be so distant after all.

A few things I love about being back in America + the Midwest again; sun, sun, sun, and more sun. Not to mention stores…so many stores! So many restaurants, so many parking spaces, pay-at-the-pump gas, mail that comes straight to our front door, indoor playgrounds for the kids (ahem…McDonalds), Walmart grocery pick-up, Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips, a steady supply of half and half for my coffee, and the simple ability to be able to pick up my phone and call my family. Novel, I know! Not to mention access to better health care. Thane finally got started with one out of the two elbow surgeries that he’s been needing for months, it went well and we are so thankful. Life overseas makes for some really amazing experiences, but being home in the States again has been such a breath of fresh air.

And best of all is the people. We’re seeing friends from duty-stations past, and oh my goodness, each and every one of our immediate neighbors is so wonderful and we feel so blessed to be where we are. We’ve never lived in a place with so many caring, Christ loving people. It’s truly astounding.

I’ll admit that it took me a little while to get over the fact that our house here isn’t quite what we wanted… it’s smaller than our last one in Germany. Yes, you heard me right, SMALLER (gasp). Hahaha, sigh! But the kitchen layout is better, there’s a first-floor master bedroom, original hardwood in the living area, and our furniture (sorta-kinda-not-really-but-we’ll-pretend) fits well, once we replaced our couch set with just a single sofa, that is. Anyway, as much as we didn’t anticipate down-sizing, we’re making the best of it and I’m using this time as yet another opportunity to simplify and clean out and practice contentment in less than ideal but- all things considered- still pretty good circumstances. And the kids love it! There are playmates galore, lots of bike riding space in the front, and a fort with a tire swing in the back. There’s also a small patch of woods that run along the backside of our house where a few very friendly deer and big brown bunnies live, too. It’s beautiful.

Also worth noting, I’ve gone a little hang-crazy now that we no longer live in a house with concrete walls. My only regret is that there’s not more wall space, haha. I’ve got about 436 more frames and canvases and shelves just stacked in random piles in the basement. There’s a very good chance we’ll be moving in less than a year, so it’s probably not a big deal if we never get entirely organized here. That being said, I’m sure this year will fly by, and God willing, we’ll be movin’ up into something a little more spacious. Kind of makes me sad though, I know we’ll always cherish our time here!

In other news, I’m scheduling photography sessions! If you’d like some family photos, hop over to my PHOTOGRAPHY page for more info. You can also find me on INSTAGRAM where I post more frequently.

Have a great day!

This post made possible by the fabulous neighborhood meal-train this week that’s freed up a little of my time. Thank you again to all of you, you know who you are!

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4 Comments

We love that you’re doing a blog again! It’s like a nice visit and some catching up on your family life. Things we don’t really get to when we do FaceTime calls. Fun to see the pictures too. Those dear really are tame! They come in our yard, but we can’t get anywhere near that close to them. Hugs all around. Grandmother

Enjoyed your post over my breakfast in the hospital. I love how you can make a small space still uncluttered and beautiful using what you have! Working on focusing on thankfulness and contentment with you.